page_title: Living fossil
hierarchical_section_title: Living fossil
caption_attribution_description: Phylum: Chordata – Class: Reptilia – Order: Crocodilia – Species: Crocodylus acutus Crocodylus acutus, american crocodile, cocodrilo americano, crocodile d´Amérique, cocodrilo de rio, lagarto amarillo, american saltwater crocodile. English: An american crocodile (Crocodylus acutus). This photograph was taken at La Manzanilla, Jalisco State in Mexico, on the Pacific Coast. Français&#160;: Un Crocodile américain (Crocodylus acutus). Photo prise à La Manzanilla, dans l'état de Jalisco, sur la côte pacifique du Mexique. Italiano: cocodrilo americano
context_page_description: Living fossil refers to life forms which have survived with little change for a long time, and which are still around today.
  Horseshoe crabs are a typical case of living fossil. They have changed little in appearance since the Ordovician period, 450 million years ago.
  Crocodilians first appeared 220 million years ago, and are close relatives of the dinosaurs. However, modern crocodiles only date back to the Upper Cretaceous of 84 million years ago.
  Turtles are first known from 215 million years ago, but for some reason they are not often mentioned as living fossils.
  The Tuatara, from New Zealand, is the sole survivor of a whole order of reptiles, the Sphenodontia. 200 million years ago the group was quite common.
  The Coelacanth is definitely a living fossil. It is the closest link between fish and the first amphibians. The Coelacanth was thought to have been extinct for 80 million years until one was caught alive off the east African coast in 1938. It is therefore also a Lazarus taxon.
  The Ginkgo tree, Ginkgo biloba, is a good example from the world of plants. It is a gymnosperm.
context_section_description: Living fossil refers to life forms which have survived with little change for a long time, and which are still around today.
  Horseshoe crabs are a typical case of living fossil. They have changed little in appearance since the Ordovician period, 450 million years ago.
  Crocodilians first appeared 220 million years ago, and are close relatives of the dinosaurs. However, modern crocodiles only date back to the Upper Cretaceous of 84 million years ago.
  Turtles are first known from 215 million years ago, but for some reason they are not often mentioned as living fossils.
  The Tuatara, from New Zealand, is the sole survivor of a whole order of reptiles, the Sphenodontia. 200 million years ago the group (sister to the lizards and snakes) was quite common.
  The Coelacanth is definitely a living fossil. It is the closest link between fish and the first amphibians (408–362 million years ago). The Coelacanth was thought to have been extinct for 80 million years until one was caught alive off the east African coast in 1938. It is therefore also a Lazarus taxon.
  The Ginkgo tree, Ginkgo biloba, is a good example from the world of plants. It is a gymnosperm. It was thought to be long extinct in the wild, but is now known to grow in at least two small areas in China. The first similar fossils date from the Permian period, 270 million years ago.
  Lingula, a brachiopod, is a genus which has lasted since the Ordovician, 488 million years ago. The modern species are almost the same as the first fossils.
  Living fossils are not identical to their ancestors, of course. But they lived in the same or similar environments, and their adaptations suggest that their life-style was the same, or very similar.
caption: The American crocodile
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